Battle for Arcturus IV
This is a Maverick Article "An unprecedented waste of resources and men... but at least we won." Frozen on Arrival The battle for Arcturus IV was an offensive engagement by the allies, primarily the UNSC, against the Dominion forces. Covered in forerunner ruins Arcturus IV was a candidate for looting by the Dominion for months when they inadvertently activated a city beneath miles of glaciars and was detected by UNSC forces sparking a rush to push the Dominion off world and secure any forerunner assets which might be of use against the Dominion. Battlegroup November arrived in system on July 20th 2577 and sent a small convoy of three frigates to assess the scale of Dominion occupation of the system and deliver a preliminary blow to Dominion defenses. The scale of Dominion forces in system was drastically under-estimated however and the three frgiates were attacked. UNSC Followed Dawn was struck with Jiralhanae pike missiles and erupted into flames. The Same Jiralhanae cruiser proceeded to attack the Deliverance and Growing Pains however both had already angled themselves and began firing volleys of missiles with the Deliverance sending waves of fighters. Growing Pains was struck by the Jiralhanae cruiser in the MAC gun and forced the frigate its a defensive retreat where it supported the deliverance from afar. The Deliverance's fighters occupied the Cruiser long enough for the Deliverance to fire off two MAC rounds into the cruisers starboard side crippling the cruisers missile batteries. Three Jiralhanae frigates closed in on the crippled trifecta who were now in a defensive Reinforcements Battlegroup November arrived MACs hot scorching the first Jiralhanae cruiser and lacerating the pursueing three Jiralhanae cruisers. With the element of surprise evaporated the battlegroup ensued a large scale assault on the defensive fleet of the planet now lacking four cruisers with the UNSC losing one frigate and the Growing Pains heavily crippled and forced planetside with a squadron of fighters sent by the Deliverance. The UNSC forces groundside began an insertion on the established Dominion military base while the space battle in orbit raged for hours lead by the battlegroups flagship Tide of the North, an Autumn class heavy cruiser. Insufficient ground forces eventually condemned the UNSC to give up the ground campaign and evacuated what was left of the landing party before a detachment of five unsc ships from the battlegroup lead a bombardment of the Dominion base groudside. Battlegroup November suffered heavy casualties but eventually pushed the Dominion into a temporary retreat. Salvaged Moral Most of Battlegroup November remained in orbit above Arcturus however a decent portion went planetside and smoked out the Dominion forces safe within the glacial caverns and underground Forerunner facilities. The Dominion was observed to have been extracting star map data from a forerunner chamber harboring an ancient human artifact that seemed to be in a constant state of activity. After two days a massive Dominion fleet arrived sporting dozens of cruisers and a vastly larger number of Kig-Yar frigates and fighters and Yemme swarm ships. Battlegroup November readied themselves and fired into the engaging enemy fleet. Swarms of Yemme fighters took the brunt of the attacks and swarm ships pushed through the battlegroup without firing a single missile and went planetside along with a contingent of Jiralhanae dropships and Kig Yar landing corvettes. Dominion cruisers steadied themselves and fired into the UNSC battlegroup. UNSC Tide of the North suffered a heavy blow its aft portside shredding through deck layers and crippling the port engines and hanger bays. On the groud the Yemme were largely ineffective in the cold wasteland of Arcturus until Kig-Yar forces overwhelmed surface defenses and the Yemme were able to swarm the tunnels however bottlenecking for the UNSC forces to pick off the Yemme numbers made it impossible to defend any position for long. Ground forces went deeper into the complex and locked chambers behind them forcing the Yemme through and Kig-yar through endless mazes of chambers biding themselves time and setting explosive charges in large bottleneck points. In atmosphere fighters and frigates fired salvos of missiles across the sky with UNSC forces primarily targeting Yemme swarm ships. Kig-Yar boarding craft were able to board and distract several frigates negating fire from the swarm ships and forcing the other frigates to focus firepower on the Kig-Yar. Ground forces in the complex reached a dead end and detonated the charges and then lead a counter assault back out of the complex as UNSC forces were able to overpower the swarm ships and Kig yar frigates. In orbit the Jiralhanae cruisers were laying waste to the UNSC forces until a massive retreat by the Kig-Yar brutally damaged moral and the UNSC was able to lead a charge at the cruisers losing three cruisers in the process the UNSC continued forward shredding through the Dominion forces with sheer tenacity and what appeared to be a lack of regard for death which inspired a retreat by the Dominion. UNSC reinforcements arrived and quickly seized the system creating a large defensive parameter. Conclusion The UNSC and allies maintained control of the system and used Arcturus as a forward operating base for rallying fleets against the Dominion for decades to come and eventually settled the Prylocect refuge species on the planet. Later investigation and resurrection of the catacombs under the surface proved the captured ancient human artifact was a map of critical military installations of the Ancient human empire including Triton. = Category:Maverick Universe Category:Michael.Dreams